59 pages • 1 hour read
Richard OsmanThe Man Who Died Twice
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 2, Chapters 40-50Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “At Times, You Won’t Believe Your Eyes”
Part 2, Chapters 40-50 Summary
At MI5’s offices in Godalming, Lance surfs property pages on the internet. Stuck in an unaffordable apartment since his girlfriend left, he fantasizes about what £20 million would buy. Returning to his emails, Lance sees an alert for a flight passenger named Andre Richardson. Lance informs Sue that Frank Andrade Jr. is booked on a flight from New Jersey to Farnborough: an airfield near Martin’s house.
Ron’s grandson Kendrick stays at Coopers Chase for a few days. Kendrick tells his grandfather about a video game called Minecraft, and Ron suggests he should talk to Ibrahim about it.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Joyce visit Fairhaven train station. The lock is damaged when they locate locker 531, but Elizabeth opens it with a hairpin. Inside is nothing but an empty potato chip packet.
Elizabeth and Joyce meet Donna at the police station. She gives them an infrared light, which they shine on the potato chip packet causing a written message to appear. The message says that Elizabeth should be able to work out where the diamonds are. Joyce points out that the damage to the locker suggests someone got there before them. Donna promises to obtain the locker room’s CCTV for them to review.
Later, Donna, Chris, and Patrice arrive at Coopers Chase to meet the Thursday Murder Club. Ibrahim remains in his room playing Minecraft with Kendrick. The group is delighted to learn that Chris’s girlfriend is Donna’s mother. They describe the deaths of Douglas and Poppy, and Elizabeth shows them photographs of the crime scene. The meeting is interrupted by Siobhan, who has come to visit Joyce. When Siobhan recounts her distressing experience of identifying Poppy’s body, Joyce invites her to stay the night.
In the early hours of the morning, Stephen becomes distressed, ranting about an author who wrote a bad review of his book. Although the review was written many years ago, Stephen thinks it has just been published. Elizabeth calls Bogdan to help calm her husband. Afterward, she studies Douglas’s first letter trying to decipher any clues. Taking the first letter of each sentence, she realizes it spells “NICE TRY DEAR.”
That night, Donna stakes out Connie’s house with a DCI from London. Although she does not like the DCI and is uncertain of his name, she has dinner with him after their shift. Donna changes her decision to have a one-night stand with the DCI when he makes insulting remarks about her boss and friend, Chris. She pays her share of the bill and leaves, deciding to talk to Ibrahim.
Meanwhile, Chris feels lonely as Patrice returns to her teaching job in London. Late in the evening, he receives an unexpected visit from Connie. Connie makes it clear that she has had enough of being followed by Chris and his team. She says she has been following Chris, Donna, and Patrice and threatens that she knows where they all live. When Connie leaves, Chris updates Donna but does not reveal Connie’s threat against Patrice.
Part 2, Chapters 40-50 Analysis
This section of the novel deepens the mystery surrounding Douglas and the missing diamonds while exploring the importance of love and friendship in the face of loneliness: a recurring theme in the text.
Chapter 40 subverts the mystique surrounding the intelligence services by depicting Lance surfing property pages at work. Insight into Lance’s thoughts elevates him from a flat character to a more rounded individual. The details we learn about his financial predicament since his breakup also give him a motive for stealing the diamonds, raising his profile as a possible suspect. Like many of the characters, Lance views the diamonds as a symbol of transformative power, fantasizing about how they could alter his life.
Chapters 41 and 43 promise a great revelation as Elizabeth and Joyce visit locker 531. However, the mission results in anti-climax and more subterfuge when the locker contains an empty potato chip packet. Although a message is revealed under infrared light, it takes the form of another riddle, unhelpfully suggesting that Elizabeth should know where the diamonds are. The complex trail of clues left by Douglas culminates in another dead end when Elizabeth re-examines his first letter to find an acrostic spelling, “NICE TRY DEAR.”
Ibrahim’s withdrawal from society continues in Chapter 44 when he remains in his room instead of joining the other members of the Thursday Murder Club when Donna, Chris, and Patrice visit. However, he plays Minecraft with Kendrick, marking his first step toward rehabilitation. Ron’s instinct that playing video games will reignite Ibrahim’s interest in life demonstrates how well he knows his friend.
Chapter 45 offers an intimate portrait of Elizabeth’s marriage when Stephen becomes agitated in the early hours of the morning. His sudden outburst results from his dementia, as he recalls an event from years earlier as if it had only just occurred. Readers see a new, compassionate side of Elizabeth as she calms Stephen while feeling anguish at the knowledge she is losing her husband. The scene offers a striking example of the power of love as the couple’s devotion to each other is shown to be undiminished by Stephen’s illness.
Connected to the theme of love is loneliness, an emotion experienced by several of the characters in these chapters. Joyce’s diary entry describes her wish to see more of her daughter, who rarely takes advantage of the spare room her mother keeps ready for her. Meanwhile, in Chapter 48, Chris cries from the joy of Patrice’s company, demonstrating how lonely he has been up to this point. In Chapter 49, the depth of Donna’s loneliness is displayed when she contemplates having “disappointing sex in a Travelodge” with an arrogant colleague she barely knows (268). Readers learn that Donna’s identity as a Black woman contributes to her isolation in a “town where Boots doesn’t have your shade of foundation, and the nearest person you can trust with your hair is in Brighton” (49).
In this section of the novel, Connie’s true colors emerge. Formerly portrayed as a humorous character, readers are reminded that she is capable of cold-blooded murder when she threatens the lives of Chris, Donna, and Patrice. The possibility that Connie may harm Patrice looms from this point onwards, creating narrative tension.
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By Richard Osman
